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We've been discussing about this here on MSFN (I don't remember in which topic, though). Anyway, the reason is that every year Avast releases a new version of its Antivirus with a new UI and new tools, however Avast 18 is already a pretty solid product which offers many tools included within the program and it's very reliable. Some of the tools already available in Avast 18 are a Firewall, a WiFi Inspector to find vulnerabilities, RealSite to make sure your DNS are legit, a Sandbox to run programmes in a protected environment, Passwords to safely store all your passwords (it works with Firefox ESR 52.9, it doesn't work with Chrome 49 nor Chromium 54), a Sensitive Data Shield to encrypt your personal informations, a WebCam Shield to prevent unauthorized access to your webcam, Data Shredder to overwrite with the zero-fill method an hard drive and make deleted files impossible to recover, Boot-Scan to use a CHKDSK-Like method to run Avast when Windows is not running (to get rid of the nastier threats), an automatic software and driver update mechanism that checks for newer versions of the programmes/drivers you have installed and can install them in background or just notify you, Recovery Disk Tool with which you can make a bootable disk or usb with Avast only and many many other tools (I didn't even list them all)! This summer, part of the team started working at Avast 19 and another part of the team maintained Avast 18 with a new minor release every week and a public release every month to cope with the frequent Windows 10 updates. Keep in mind that a new management is leading Avast and I don't know who took the decision this summer, but what I can say it's what I already said in the Avast forum months ago: we gotta focus on making sure that the last version of Avast 18 will be solid, hassle free and perfectly working before the end of the year so that we will be able to keep using Avast flawlessly as the definitions are provided in real time thanks to the streaming-updates and that only the new tools and UIs won't be available. (One of the things they'll do will be re-arranging the menu and make a sort of sub-menu for normal users and an "hidden" one for advanced users). Anyway, I don't know anyone anymore in Avast, so I can't say, but we already knew about this since this summer and we were prepared. In a nutshell: don't worry, keep using Avast, it will keep working for many years to come

Microsoft Update offered me two suppsedly important updates for Office 2010 on Windows XP a couple of days ago, KB2863821 and KB4461522. They installed fine, but the next day I came to use Word, and it would not run, with the error message - Application popup: winword.exe - Entry Point Not Found : The procedure entry point GetDateFormatEx could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll. This was followed by "The operating system is not presently configured to run this application". I quickly found that no Office programs would now run, with the same error messages. I removed the two updates, and all returned to normal. I have no idea which of the updates caused the problem, and I haven't been offered either of them again so far, but if you are offered them, beware as they may well completely break your Office installation!

Dear All, I too got these error and thanks to all of you for the fix. Great and long live Windows XP...

@LoneCrusader. Don't mean to go off topic but just had a quick look at Q4OS and XPQ4 and have a quick question. Am I understanding this correctly. Q4OS is the Debian based Linux distribution and needs to be installed so that the XPQ4 addon can be installed to give it a Win XP/7/8/10 shell/desktop/feel. Is that correct? Good Luck Cheers

I don't want to appear picky....but where did incompetence get called a bug.... Had the same from Bitdefender support....I installed the latest release and all of a sudden I couldn't access my "Home Network"...?! Turned off Bitdefender and had access again...got in contact with support and they said they have a bug in the fire wall that will be fixed soon with an update.... I then contacted sales and demanded my money back.....Releasing a version with a firewall bug?! But I see the same with Windows 10....instead of improving they get worse....why the desperate hurry to release a new verison all the time....concentrate on fixing the original before pushing new crap on us....because of the amount of computers that I am getting with Windows 10 and serious problems with hardware etc....I have warned all my customers about Microsoft and their insistance to update hardware drivers...Yes, we can turn it off but as you all know Microsoft activate it again with a new update....So, my customeres are left with "grin and bear it" Look at this crap... Windows Insider Program Explore the future of Windows You’ll be amazed at just how many highlights our engineers have already packed into this early Windows 10 Insider Preview build (19H1), including a more powerful Windows Search, a beautiful new design update, and more.1 PREVIEW FEATURES > Link now working... What bloody engineers?! They couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag!!!!! bookie32

I think that is very aptly put. I am going to hang to in with XP as long as I am able, much like 98SE which I liked, but eventually will have to move to Win7 for practical reasons. Luckily, all my XP progs seem to work on Win7. Figure this will be in the next year or two max. In the interim since I dual boot, it will give me time to get used to Win7. Good Luck

It looks like these both got posted at the same time, and I think @dencorso answers @Jody Thornton's question. It's not really a matter of being "over," so much as just noticing you're using the old OS less and less, and the new OS more and more, until one day you realize you're not really using the old OS at all. Many of us don't abruptly "break up" with an OS; it just sort of falls away over time. But as long as it gets used at all, I still appreciate help from forums like this one. I've noticed the same phenomenon in other areas. A couple of years ago I replaced a Channel Master-brand DVR with their new model. The combination of "UI shock" (having to figure out the new DVR's way to do practically everything) and a few annoying limitations in the new DVR led me to track down another one of the old DVRs on eBay! But eventually, I got used to the new DVR, and the old one gets little use these days. (Now I'm going through those same migration pains again, trying to move to an Android phone from a BlackBerry....) M$ has much to answer for here; they've made OS upgrades way more of a pain than they should be. Really, it should just be: Put the new OS DVD in the drive Boot from the DVD Wait Enjoy! Everything still works just like it did, but now you can run all the new programs that wouldn't run on the old version. But M$ never does that! There are always apps that won't run anymore, folders that got moved around, etc. None of this was necessary to create a more feature-rich OS; a lot of it was just "flash" to try to attract folks' eyes in the hopes they'll be enticed to upgrade to a "hot" new OS. All of that said, however, I don't support the petition to Mozilla. To me it seems there are two related, but different issues: Should Firefox still support legacy extensions? Then why bother Mozilla? Just switch to PM or Basilisk. They (especially Basilisk) are the "extended FF 52" the petitioners say they want. Should Firefox, PM, or Basilisk still support XP/Vista (why does everyone forget Vista's in the same boat as XP where browsers are concerned), instead of both being limited to Win 7 and up? (Then why not just use MyPal or @roytam1's builds? Mozilla and the PM team have enough to do.) Edit: @Mcinwwl's point about upgrades and language packs is well taken. As I mentioned in the NM thread, not everyone is as technically savvy as the average MSFN reader; some of us have to help out our parents. So MyPal and @roytam1 aren't a complete solution. But I see no reason why someone with a little free time can't fill that gap. I'm sure that, at some point, either the Web will evolve to the point where PM and Basilisk can't keep up with FF, or Feodor2 and @roytam1 can't make either work on XP anymore. (We've already hit that point with much DRM-protected media.) But that's probably even further off than Win 7 EOL! In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with what XP users have.

Fresh of today: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-bug-is-deactivating-windows-10-pro-licenses-and-downgrading-to-home/ No comment needed I believe. jaclaz

Matt A. Tobin spewing, once more, poison against Vista users and against the New Moon fork: #817#issuecomment-433252852 The fact is I got prior clearance from Moonchild himself to report bugs (found in New Moon 28 on Vista) in the GitHub issue tracker, if: 1. The bug has been also reported in the Palemoon forum by users of the official PM builds 2. I could replicate the bug I found by using an official build on Win7+ So that is why I got involved in #817#issuecomment-427697783 Honestly, I find all that hostility from Tobin to be totally unwarranted... Mind you, I refuse to even dignify his response by trying to argue with him; we all know by now he's a nut case... I will accept his code contributions to PM but am not prepared, nor willing, to accept his attitude (rant over...)

VistaLover ,I understood you !

roytam1,I did not want to offend you!I apologize!

@roytam1 Thank you for the tremendous effort and time you put forth in providing me with a fast and secure browser to run on my XP machine. I just want you to know there are many like me who certainly appreciate all you do.

I really don't understand why Microsoft doesn't just give us the option to use Aero transparencies. I know it can use more resources on older machines that might not have them, but since Win7 hardware has come a long way. Most consumers get Windows with a new computer. I'm sure most of us here build our own. Anyway, thank you Big Muscle for doing what Microsoft won't.

+1. Let's let Roy concentrate solely on that, which is of paramount importance to both XP and Vista communities.

I agree that YOUR (ROYTAM) time is BETTER spent NOT getting involved with maintaining some AUTOUPDATER for say NM28XP. Let someone else do that. I would say that running your ANTI VIRUS software detection in an AUTOMATED manner (MALWAREBYTES for WinXP comes to mind, it has automated settings) say at least once a month, is MORE important than updating the NM28XP Browser. Say every two months, update the BROWSER manually. For a LOT of situations, that may be good enough for the BROWSER update activity. I think that it depends a LOT on what WEBSITES that you visit them. If you are mostly visiting known NEWS websites, doing some EMAILS, and maybe doing BANKING type activity, in my view, being certain that a VIRUS is not active is MORE important than updating the BROWSER. I realize that VIRUS prevention and updating the BROWSER go 'hand in hand' together somewhat. (Meant as humor) Plus, MANUALLY deleting the PALEMOON Folder and replacing it with the latest NEW NM28XP archive that I downloaded it makes me feel VERY GEEKY ... It helps to 'validate' me as a POWER USER

you are heavily mistaken , reality is vista sp2 is better than windows 7

New build of post-deprecated basilisk/moebius for XP! * Notice: This repo will not be built on regular schedule, and changes are experimental as usual. ** Current moebius patch level should be on par with 52.8, but some security patches can not be applied/ported due to source milestone differences between versions. Test binary: Win32 http://o.rths.cf/basilisk/basilisk55-win32-git-20180828-b78c31157-xpmod.7z Win64 http://o.rths.cf/basilisk/basilisk55-win64-git-20180828-b78c31157-xpmod.7z repo: https://github.com/roytam1/basilisk55 Repo changes: - cherry-picked from UXP: Improve nsHtml5AtomTable performance (#693) (dc5f43707) - update NSPR to hg rev 6e31156d7002 (3c015fea6) - update NSS to hg rev 27e7c0376137 (f791dfd70) - update ffvpx to git release/3.4 branch rev bc2301429e9c779237e43acf913331af018211f2 (12091e9f0) - update NSS to hg rev 4c7ffcfd43f6, with TLS 1.3 RFC version enabled. (b78c31157) * This is a special build intended to test NSS 3.39 Beta about TLS 1.3 RFC version

Those are on 10 already, after all the concentrated efforts MS has put into goading/conning people to move to 10, despite their needs.

@curiosil That isn't helpful at all. Vista > 7 in my experience to be honest, but let's not drift too far off-topic. Is there any chance you can provide an installer that can auto-update some day to the latest test build, that when initialising you can set as the default browser/etc.? I'd say don't make it at all a priority but for the less technically inclined it would be a godsend...